It’s Still There

January 21, 2013

If you go outside tonight you might see something spectacular. Appearing from behind and a bit above the waxing moon, but 414 million miles further away, Jupiter will light up the night. The second brightest object in the nighttime sky will give us a show, as long as there are no obstacles that get in the way. Get in the way of an object bigger than the rest of the Galaxy combined? Is that Possible?

An obstacle does not need to be very large to block our view. Some thin, wispy, next to nothing clouds a few thousand feet above the earth could easily get in the way. The view of a celestial object with a mass more than two-and-a-half times all the rest of the planets in our solar system combined is being hindered by some accumulated cumulus water vapor. Astounding!

Clouds are not very dense; until it rains they are lighter than air, yet they can block our view, of not only Jupiter, but even the Sun itself. Something so amorphous and diaphanous, yet at the same time translucent, and able to shield us from the Sun. Of course it is all a matter of perspective. A simple, average, thundercloud can hold six hundred milliontons of water! That cute little puffy thing isn’t so little after all.

This two-hundred word science lesson is brought to you by the word perspective.

The obstacle may be much bigger than you think it is. (But it is still not bigger than God.) Clouds, for all their fluffiness are filled-to-bursting. And that thing, or person in your way, may at first appear inconsequential, but they may actually be a truly gigantic obstacle for which much prayer is needed.

Even small objects can block out view if the perspective is not right. The next time you lose sight of the prize, or can’t seem to find what you are looking for, try looking at it from a different angle. Most of us have seen children, or the child-like, trying to block an uncomfortable image by holding their hands in front of their face. Sometimes we must change our point-of-view to see clearly.

The object blocking our view might just be the object for which we are looking. Many great discoveries are made by accident, while the explorer or scientist is looking for something entirely different.

Just because we can’t see what we are looking for doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to see.Sometimes we are directed to walk into the darkness so that we can see something even more important that we expect. Sometimes the spectacular is blocked from our view so we can see the magnificent.

Actually, we will always see something spectacular, but whether we notice or not is completely up to us. Around every corner, over and under every tree and every bush, on just the other side of everything, there is constant extraordinariness going on all around us.

“Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God” Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

What are you looking for?

What are you seeing?

What perspectives need to be changed?

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